These stories are true and based on real events or converations as best as can be re-created.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

It all comes down to having fun. By jeff rose

of the problems we have on lightrail comes down to the fact thatkids, usuallywith bus passes

can ride all over town and it's FUN!! They meet up at astation or along abus route, grow in numbers like a tumor. Here, this is an example of whathappens:

A line 4 operator passes a stop along Fesseden, there are three kids there atthe shelter,they act like they're going to get on the bus but they just poke their head in,see a friendand yell back for them to get off the bus. All of a sudden there are 5 of them.The busleave. The next bus comes by and by this time a coulple more kids have shownup. Theoperator opens the door but none of them get on. They're milling around, notdoinganything too suspect other than acting a little on the mischievious side ofthings so thebus leaves. There is a sign posted that the stop is for transit use only- whatis going onhere?

By the time the next bus shows up about a half an hour has elapsed and the grouphasreached critical mass. There are about 15 kids there and most of them cram ontothe busgiving the operator a ton of greif, one might be trying to sneak by the operatorthen whencaught pulls out a youth pass and snickers (testing the operator). Others cramtheir handsdeep into their pockets pushing their pants down around their knees then putting48cents into the fare box they stand there with their hands out waiting for atransfer. [Thisis where I try to feign confusion]. They all get on and ride down to Interstatewhere theyget off and join another group of kids milling around the bus stop at InterstateandLombard. Here comes trouble.

Our transit system is here to allow people (including these kids) to get fromone place toanother- the problem is that it is simply too much fun for these kids to use thetransitsystem as a way of acheiving this critical mass. This is where we need to nipthe problemin the bud. We can't wait until there is this huge mass of trouble making kidsrovingaround- by that time it's too late. We should be preventing the mass fromforming is thefirst place. What we, as operators (those of us who are operators) neet is tobe able tocommunicate when the seed of the mass has been planted. When kids start millingaround a station or a bus stop- somebody needs to know. The best way to set upasystem to monitor this is through outmessages.

A loitering outmessage that would allow us to enter a number involved would beaneffective way to get these kids to move somewhere else and could seriouslyhinder theirability to accumulate in the manner that they do. In the example above, whenthe firstoperator went by and the kids didn't get on the bus- he would enter theloiteringoutmessage and would enter the number 5 which says "5 people loitering at thisstop andnot getting on a bus" Trimet is notified, since the stop is near New Columbiawhere thereare LOTS of cops, Trimet lets the PPD know and the kids are moved on their way.Theynever reach critical mass, they don't have as much fun, and a couple of them gohome,decide to study for that test on monday, one of them passes it and goes on tobecomepresident of the United States in 2032.

All over the system where these masses accumulate, they are almost instantydispersed assoon as they START to form- all of a sudden Trimet isn't really that much fun.Peopletrying to use it to get around aren't hassled/ assaulted as much and ridershipgoes UP andcrime goes down! In any case, in order to solve this problem, Trimet needs touse US (theeyes of the system) and needs to set up a system to get information from us andneeds totrain us in exactly what they want us to report AND ought to expect us to reportwhenpeople are loitering. As it is, I let it go because I assume that they don'treally care toknow about a few kids hanging around a bus stop. This is exactly what TrimetNEEDS toknow and act on if this problem is going to be solved.